Introducing…our Ad Ops intern

On the best of days, advertising is not the easiest industry to navigate. But someone who is prepared for the challenge is our newest team member, Mark.

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On the best of days, advertising is not the easiest industry to navigate. But someone who is prepared for the challenge is our newest team member, Mark. He’s currently studying at university and has joined us for a summer internship to learn all things ad tech and ad ops! I caught up with Mark in his first week at Coull...

First of all, where are you from?

That’s always a difficult question to answer because I’ve spent my life growing up in various countries like China, America, Australia and the UK. But you could say that I take a piece of those countries with me wherever I go.

So, what are you studying?

I’m mid-way through my Business degree at the University of the West of England. It’s great because I’ve been able to explore the areas of business that I’m most interested in, such as entrepreneurship, marketing, accounting and business finance. I have known for a while that I wanted to be involved in business development and my degree is helping me achieve that.

Studying in Bristol was a natural choice for me because it’s the creative hub of the UK and there’s a big network of business connections. Not only this, but it’s close enough to the beach so I can continue my passion for surfing.

My aim throughout university is to get the most out of the whole experience. So far I’ve attended extra-curricular seminars, become a student leader, represented the university as a student mentor around the world, and I’m being sent on a trip to China to study Mandarin and learn about business in East Asia.

An important part of my uni experience is to further my knowledge of various industries and gain firsthand experience, hence, leading me to an internship at Coull. After speaking with the Coull team, I soon realised that this opportunity would provide me with great experience and open my eyes to the world of digital advertising.

How would you describe your role at Coull so far?

My role is to dive deep into compliance and ensure Coull is eliminating online ad fraud, all whilst providing the best possible service to our partners.

So far, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the industry (which hasn’t been easy!), learning how Coull operates, identifying elements of ad fraud and studying the processes to prevent it.

As a digital advertising newbie, the technical aspects (not to mention, the countless acronyms) can become overwhelming, but fortunately, there’s a great team supporting and teaching me.

Although my role is focused on ad ops at the moment, I’m also keen to expand my knowledge of other areas of the business such as finance, marketing and production.

It sounds like it’s been a busy first week for you! What ambitions have you got for the future?

A goal of mine is to follow in my father’s entrepreneurial footsteps, and so, with support from university, I’ve managed to build the foundations for my own enterprise, a surf business called ‘Wavved’. The business aims to provide the products and services to help people take up surfing.

My hope is to use all of the knowledge I gain at Coull to positively influence my future business ventures, such as to increase effectiveness in the marketplace and become more profitable.

Already, my time at Coull has made me realise the level of commitment I want to provide to my future customers and the responsibility I’d have in relation to advertising online.

Coull is a new and exciting challenge for me and one I hope to learn a lot from.